This best of all days started with sleep. That is, we slept relatively late, not having gone to bed until around 3.30am or later. We all took showers, made final use of the functional wifi to send (or try to send, before realizing later we closed the computer too early) Facebook messages and other important communiqués. Then, we could descend for the breakfast.
Since I was rather pressed for time by this point, and ravenous (somehow, after the previous night's dinner!), and since the food was delicious, I have very few food photos. In fact, the one breakfast photo I took was, I will admit, of someone else's plate (since I had already finished mine!). There was a bread bar. There was a cheese bar. There was a jam bar (yes, a jam bar. So many types of jam. It was unbelievable). There was an egg bar. There was a make-you-own-omlette (or scramble, if you fail at omelets like I do) bar. There was a yogurt bar. There was a cereal bar. There was a croissant bar. There was a fruit bar. There was a drinks bar. There was, of course, a coffee machine. We went all out.
A sample breakfast. Note that mine was significantly bigger, and more diverse, but I think, for my own sense of dignity, it is better you not see a picture of that!
This belongs at the end. It is real Swiss chocolate, purchased in Switzerland. Cheap, not particularly good Swiss chocolate. Still, it is Swiss!
Morning view from the window. This is a ski area. Of course. And I didn't have skis!
This was our hotel. It was beautiful. You can tell.
We then checked out and rode in the bus for all of fifteen or twenty minutes to the next town, passing far too many skiers for my comfort; my envy was immense. Finally, we got off the bus (after bundling up warmly to face the snow!) and med up with our guide, who fitted us out for snowshoes. We were offered poles if we desired, but as the hard-core wilderness woman that I am (or at least that I fancy myself to be!), I declined. I had to free up my hands for photos and adventures, after all.
We passed ski areas galore. Alas. The snow, I must say, was FANTASTIC.
These are my feet. The red things are not. The snowshoes went well with my Sperrys. People should always wear boating shoes while snowshoeing. Said nobody ever.
We made our ascent towards lunch, with the guide explaining the local history and ecology at several points along the way. It was not a difficult pace, not too fast, but this provided plenty of time to capture pictures before jogging (or, should I say, stumbling rapidly?) to catch up with the group. It was cloudy but the snow was deep and while it was impossible to capture properly, I did my best!
Ravine with snow.
Post. Stating the obvious.
These are my knees. This is the snow. In fact, this is me up past my knees in deep snow. With snowshoes on.
This is a chalet. It is not a house; nobody lived here. Cattle hung out, and milk. And snow, apparently.
Well, they told me there was a mountain here...
You cannot tell, but this is perfect, deep, untracked powder. It is just asking for me to ski it.
Typical farmhouse (bonus points if you catch the falling snow!) They burn really easily, so they always have a separate building for their valuables. The cows live in the back.
And then there was…snow
Oh, and more snow. It never ends. And yet, it never stops captivating me!
More posts. And more snow. Yes, this is a common theme.
Finally, we arrived at the restaurant. We had to take off our snowshoes and shake off outside so we didn't melt all over their cozy interior. It was around this time that I started to become fully cognizant of the sizable quantity of snow in my Sperrys. This is what I get for wearing boat shoes while snowshoeing. In response, I took them up and gladly welcomed my vin chaud when it came, even if the added berries and citrus made it a bit fruitier than I would have liked. We also helped ourselves to plenty of water from decorated pitchers and ordered our traditional savyoard food. I took a vacheron, which, as you will see, is quite something. It consists of a cheese, melted while still in its rind and wooden box, served with potatoes, salad, charcuterie, the works. For dessert, a tarte aux myrtilles was a fantastic way to end the meal.
Vin chaud. Hot wine. Like hot chocolate but alcoholic and without chocolate.
A typical water jug. Yes, those are goats.
Vacherons! Beautifully melted, heartrendingly delicious.
The various goods that came with my cheese. It was unspeakably good.
While waiting for my dessert, I admired their collection of…cowbells. And ski helmets!
This tart. Was. Very. Good. A bit sweeter than necessary but myrtilles are naturally a bit tart, so it was highly edible.
Those classic birds are characteristic of the region, carved with Opinel knives from one piece of wood for both wings and one for the body. No, I have absolutely no idea how they do that.
After lunch, we put our snowshoes back on to head down the mountain. This was the best part; we went hors-piste and I had the luxury of carving my own path wherever in the world it pleased me (so long as I remained in the general vicinity). Thus, I was a path forger, and explored, and took numerous photos. I also fell, of course (several times caused by losing balance while trying to replace the camera in my pocket), and it was beautiful
Here comes the sun...
…or not
I found the valley!
And now the sun found the valley!
Snow-covered houses.
How can I resist the clouds?
Ah, what a sunny day it has become!
Trees and their shadow.
…sideways trees and their shadow?
The valley spread out below us
This car will have a terrible time getting out in the morning!
After snowshoeing and returning the equipment (and, of course, thanking our guide profusely), we walked down the mountain and back to the bus. It drove us back to Geneva, during which most people slept and I, believe it or not, coded.
Back in Switzerlandd.
Gévève has birds, too!
The sun emerges...
So, once we arrived at the Gare, we had about an hour. We went to find food, nothing too serious. I didn't get any because my fantastic host family left something for me, but I was amused by everyone else's quests to find something affordable in the Gare (especially when it involves paying in Francs Suisse!). We boarded the train, and all went well. We returned to Gare de Lyon, and went our separate ways.
Since then, I have been rather uninteresting. I have done a good amount of work, hens my disappearance. Today, after my course, my 30-60 minute presentation re. computer science and machine learning and distributed data streams (which was much closer to 30 minutes!), finishing my code, and taking the test, we had a crêpe social with the ISEP students and then there was dinner chez ma famille d'accueil. Afterwards, I headed out to go to the Palais Tokyo museum with a friend, but it was, for some reason, closed, so we found a nice place instead, sat down, and talked. Now, I will stop taking because it is far too late at night for such activities.
Uh oh, this may be unprecedented, but the snow looks like it may be better outside of Geneva than in Aspen. It's too warm here (spring conditions) and it hasn't snowed much for the past few weeks, so lots of rocks (thank goodness for rental skis!) and not lots of snow.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the food is still good... no pix, though, and instead of snowshoes, we get to use skis.
BTW, those are adorable red snow shoes, but they were not deep powder shoes that you were wearing; those were trail shoes. No wonder you sank up to your knees. Next time, just wear hip waders and bring a snorkel.